THE death of Louis Boduka, whose family were from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), so soon after the death of another Congolese teenager, Henry Bolombi, has prompted two leaders of Britain's Congolese community to speak out about the shock it is still experiencing this week.

Bart Ngoma, director of the Kongolese Children's Association (KCA), says that nine Congolese teenagers have been killed in Britain in the last 13 months.

He said: "We are a small community and this shows that there is a problem within that community. We can see, in 2008, the Congolese community is suffering from a lack of resources.

"From my point of view we are facing a clash of cultures and one of the main issues is that parents are not getting any social support."

He said that the Congolese community was stigmatised by potential sources of funding because in 2005 there had been cases of mismanagement in Congolese-run organisations.

The number of people from the DRC in Britain is estimated to be around 40,000, with the majority having fled the country due to the instability caused by two wars since the 1960s which have killed millions of people.

A report by the International Rescue Committee this month revealed that as many as 45,000 people continue to die each month in the country from war-related causes.

Thomas Bikebi is the director of Bantu Welfare Future Builder, the lead organisation on the UK Congolese Safeguarding Action Group, set up to prevent child abuse.

He said: "In our culture children don't have a culture of killing, it doesn't exist for us. Here there are many barriers - language, education, a lack of role models in the community; all of that is coming together.

"Where there are these things missing, it brings a lot of problems. It leaves children to go into gangs and all of those things."

Mr Ngoma said Congolese parents were often poorly educated and had difficulty helping their children, while in the past organisations like the KCA had helped to bridge the gap by providing activities for young people and support for parents.

He said: "This is where we normally should intervene, but to intervene we have to have resources."

Louis Boduka's death also shocked staff and students at Southgate College where he was studying on a higher level art and design course.

Vice principal of the college, Angelique Gainza, said Louis had not been involved in any previous difficulties at college He said: "He was extremely well liked by staff and students. He was a very respectful young man who got on with his work and was quite quiet."

l A 17-year-old was charged with Louis Boduka's murder and grievous bodily harm on another 18-year-old on Monday at Enfield magistrate's court.

He is due to return there on February 6.

The injured 18-year-old has been discharged from hospital.